Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128644
Racing was an extreme passion wh il e it lasted. He remembers a race at Ponca City . "Crashed big time . couldn 't hardly m o ve m y neck. I had a good chance of winn ing the stock cla ss, but I was all banged up and beat to shit," he recalls. " Dead last when I started out in the final. Fin ished I don 't know, 15th or something . At that po int, I don't know, I scared myself; I crashed and was banged up. My da d p ull ed m e to the side and it was k ind of a heart-toheart moment and he said this next race could win or bre ak o r us for the next year if we get factory bik es next ye ar or not. I had like fi ve po ints going into the third m oto. I was crying . he was crying. I know I can win . It was j ust o ne of those m in ut es I cou ld n ever expla in. " I went o u t th e next rac e , beat to sh it , c o u ld n' t move m y neck . hu rt in g lik e hel l. Ho lesh ot and j ust blew them away and won th e N ati ona l. I'm just that kind of guy. It' s not physica l. If I perf orm, it's mental 99.9 -percent m ental. It doesn 't matter what physical shape I'm in . If I believe I c an w in . I'll w in. " He was 13 at th e tim e and a yea r later he was out of th e sp ort and on his own. At the end of 19 88 , he dec id ed at Lo retta Lyn n ' s tha t he wa s through with rac ing. " Dude, I'm done: he told his dad. His dad thou ght he might go into road racing , but he w an t ed o ut. " If I started when I w as six, sev en , eig ht , I'd still be doing it. Ins tead I was three and a ha lf." By then he was at Conroe High Sc ho o l, home o f the Fight ing T igers, a school where he 'd co m plete h is ed uc at io n and meet his future wife , Alyssia , th en , as now, a cute little red head with a h int of the d ev il that redheads are blessed with. In hi gh schoo l he says he " saw wh at kind of tro uble he coul d get int o - alc ohol, drugs. I fo un d I co uld n't afford it ," he says . Eventually his o lder brother moved back to the area and they rented a hous e together. On Frida y nights it became beer party central with crowds of 150 to 200. Inevitably the police would show up. " We'd lock the doors and wave at them : Edwards says . Who needs a driving range? Edwards (loesn't go far to wort< on his golf game. He P4'rfects his swing in the house. Th er e were a f ew years whe n he d idn 't race , didn 't ri de. Bu t , looking back on it, he believ es hi s fath er had a m ast er pl an . Wh en Edwards was 16 hi s d ad bought a b eater Yam ah a FZR 10 0 0 . It'd been l o a d ed o n a wrecke r and th e b od ywo rk w as destroyed. They cleaned it up and Ed wards th ou ght h e'd like t o ride it. He went to the moto r v ehicle department, passed the test, "and the next th in g you know all of a sud den my dad didn't own it any m o re. I was on the thing all the ti me. 1 got to whe re I co ul d wheelie that son of a bitch through every ge ar , set it down at 130 mph and hope tha t the front fo rks wo uldn't break in half. " His fat her remains a central influence, but now at a distance . B e ca u se Colin travels so m u c h , he doesn 't get to see "Pops" as m uch as he'd li k e, and h is father c an't travel lik e he once d id . A few ye ars ba ck , th e elder Edwards underwent a liver tr ansp lant and he's had a rough ti m e ever since. The course of anti -r ej ecti on drugs is bruta l. It d idn't st op him fro m attending thi s ye ar's races at Laguna Sec a and the final ro und at Brands Hatch where he got to see his son officially crowned World Champion . They greet each other with a hug at his father's ap artment not far from Edwards' house. Edwards Sr . loo k s well , but , o n th is da y, he moves slowly. The hou se, which he shares w ith a trio of da chsunds, is fill ed with m em entos of Edw ard s' career, framed covers of Cycle News and lesser ro ad racing month lie s, o ne now defun ct. T here are phot os everywhere alo ng wi t h a few h e lm e t s . In th e p ictures , the yo unger Edward s ap pears o nly slightly younger than he is now, the buzz cut he wears no w rep lac ed by a vertical q uiff . The sm ile is just as br ight, the te eth, not wi t hs t anding t he y ears of sn uff, ju st as w hi te . Edwards appears ageless, though his body is a little thicker and tighter tha n it was when he started , ev en if he doesn 't work out much. "In 1999 I work ed my ass off and Fo gart y st ill kicked m y ass ," Edwa rds complai ns. T he world is availab le to hi s father thro ugh t he Intern et an d he k eeps in touch that wa y , monitoring the news on websit es and c om m un ic ating through email. For a time, his father manag ed h is son 's career, but now he 's more of an ad v iso r. Edwards doesn't have a manager, doesn't want o ne. One of the high profile moneymen offered his serv ic es for a mere 25 percent of Edwa rds ' earning s. " I know what I'm worth ," Edwards says. Edwards purchased a few vintage Cadillacs last season after seeing the one purchased earlier In th e year by fellow World Superbike racer Ben Bostrom. cue I e n e vw s